The US Senators has said on Wednesday, the recent partial government shutdown has affected the US cybersecurity and also gave criminals the chances to further carry out attacks against the country.
According to Sputnik news reports, Senator Amy Klobuchar along with other US lawmakers presented a letter to the national security agency and the department of homeland security citing cybersecurity threat to the United States.
In the letter, Senator wrote: “Reports indicate that government cybersecurity teams, such as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), were operating with less than half staff during the shutdown.”
It further added: “Experts have warned that our reduced capacity for cybersecurity during shutdowns provides an opportunity for adversaries and cybercriminals.”
The letter has explained that during the course of time of shutdown, the digital security certificates for several government websites with including those operated by NASA and the United States department of justice has been expired.
The US lawmakers said the security certificates are a necessary thing in order to protect the online communications from the foreign cybercriminals and adversaries. Shuttered federal employees who are responsible for the renewal of the expired security certificates were not at all able to achieve this operation due to the partial federal shutdown.
The letter, signed by Senators Jack Reed, Ed Markey, Tom Udall, Catherine Cortez Mast, and Cory Booker, called on the US President Donald Trump’s administration to detail any of the cybersecurity breaches that might occur during the shutdown.
The recent 35-day record-long federal shutdown has left around 800,000 federal workers furloughed or working without pay.